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New Atlanta Pension Proposal in the Works

[A City Councilwoman] plans to introduce a proposal that she has worked out with the city's employee unions to solve Atlanta's unfunded pension liability of more than $1.5 billion.

Telecommuting Now Atlanta Area's Main Alternative to Driving Solo

For the first time, state data shows teleworking has surpassed all alternatives to solo driving here as a main commute, including carpooling and mass transit.

Atlanta Mayor-Elect Creates Panel to Reform Public Employee Pensions

Excerpt: Reed said during the campaign he'd consider changing the time employees could become vested from 10 years to 15. The mayor-elect has also said he'd look into whether the city could enter Social Security to reduce pension costs. Reed said Tuesday he will look seriously at those options.

Pumped-up Pensions Squeezing Atlanta

Excerpt: In 2001 and 2005, the Atlanta City Council approved substantial increases in pension benefits for city workers -- but didn't figure out how to pay for them. Those decisions are not only hobbling city finances now, they threaten to cripple the city budget for years to come.

Atlanta Must Cut Pension Benefits, Join Social Security, According to Report

Excerpt: The long-anticipated report was released by the City Council's Select Committee on Pensions, created last summer to look at the city's pension obligations -- its future debts to cover benefits for workers and retirees. Last year, those obligations totaled almost $1.2 billion, dwarfing other city costs. This year, after the world recession, pension costs are expected to increase because all the pension funds have lost money in the stock market and other investments. 'What we have is not sustainable,' said councilman Howard Shook, who co-chaired the committee. The report comes as the city administration is hiring outside consultants to make pension reform recommendations.

Hospital Systems Band Together to Form Own Health Insurance Company

"[T]wo of Atlanta's largest hospital systems ... are forming an insurance company -- a bold move in a rapidly changing health care marketplace. By elbowing their way into the domain of Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna and United Healthcare, the hospital systems could dramatically increase the competition in the state's insurance marketplace. The move could also change the way patients get care, because the hospital systems will have a financial stake in keeping patients healthy and controlling costs."

Pension Cuts Often Miss Top Executives

Excerpt: More companies are sending chills down employees' spines by freezing their pensions, but that cold front isn't necessarily hitting the executive suites. Even as some of metro Atlanta's largest companies have frozen their traditional pensions or switched to cheaper plans for most employees, several minimized the impact on their executives' hefty pensions by exempting or even boosting their supplemental retirement perks.

With Traditional Pension Plans Gone, What's Next?

Excerpt: [M]ore metro Atlanta workers are joining the ranks of Americans shouldering primary responsibility for saving and investing enough money to fund their retirements. Only 17 percent of private-sector workers nationwide are now covered by traditional pensions in which a company promises its retirees a predictable retirement income no matter what happens in the financial markets. 'It's those people in their 40s and 50s that are going to get caught. They need to start saving and investing,' said Thomas Stone, a former Delta executive who retired before the company froze its pension plan in 2004. Stone, 64, says his own children don't expect to retire on a traditional pension like his. 'It no longer makes sense for a company to take on that kind of obligation.'

Why the Social Security System Is Not Like a 401(k) Plan

"Like most people, I've taken a pretty big hit in my 401(k) plan. But I don't think you can blame that on a flaw in the program, nor is there any way to regulate the risk out of such a system. If you get a stock market crash of this magnitude, any stock-based retirement plan is going to be hurt. Period. I understand the impact it has had on people close to or in retirement, but there's no solution to it. However, this is a damn fine illustration why it would have been foolish to tie Social Security benefits to the market. If SSI payments had fallen in addition to the collapse of 401(k) accounts, the pain would have been doubled for millions of people. As it is, the defined-benefit basis of Social Security at least provides a firewall in retirement."

COVID-19 Proves Need for Universal Medical Coverage

"Our U.S. healthcare financing is a clumsy mixture of public, private, and employer-based insurance. As the COVID-19 calamity has shown, our current 'hodgepodge' financing denies high-quality care to people who are economically and socially underprivileged. We also allow increasing numbers of Americans to fall into these deprived categories as massive job losses lead to terminations of health insurance."